A senior officer in Hamas’s armed wing was killed in an Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Hamas said accusing Israel of violating the truce, with reports indicating that at least five other people were killed in the incident.
Israel has not commented on the alleged strike.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan, who is based in Lebanon, said that local al-Qassam Brigades commander Muhammad al-Hawli was killed in the strike, calling it a dangerous escalation and revealing Israel’s intention to undermine the ceasefire agreement.”
He called on US President Donald Trump and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to hold Israel to account.
“The ball is now in Trump’s and Witkoff’s court, and Washington must demonstrate Israel’s commitment to the ceasefire agreement,” said Hamdan.
The incident comes a day after the US announced that the sides would be moving on to the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
According to Palestinian media, local al-Qassam Brigades commander al-Hawli’s wife and daughter, and at least three other people, were killed in the strike on the Hawli family home Thursday evening.
Illustrative: Palestinians walk amid destroyed buildings in Gaza City, in northern Gaza, January 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
A 16-year-old was among those killed, health officials told Reuters.
Separately, the IDF in a statement said troops from the 7th Armored Brigade killed a suspect in the southern Gaza Strip earlier Thursday after he crossed into the Israeli-controlled side of the ceasefire line and approached troops in a manner that posed an “immediate threat.”
The military did not specify what the suspect did to be identified as a threat.
More suspects were killed on Wednesday in both north and south Gaza after crossing the Yellow Line and moving toward troops, the IDF said, without specifying how many people were killed.
The IDF said its Southern Command forces remain deployed in Gaza in accordance with the October ceasefire agreement and will continue to act against any immediate threats.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, Israel has killed over 400 people in the Strip since the ceasefire-hostage agreement came into effect in October — over two years after Hamas invaded southern Israel, sparking the war in Gaza. The United Nations children’s agency said on Tuesday that over 100 of the Gazans killed during the ceasefire were children.
